Review of Slow Ride by Lori Foster

Slow Ride by Lori Foster
Road to Love #2
Published 12 March 2019 by HQN Books

You can’t put the brakes on love…
Ronnie Ashford needs a distraction. In the morning, she has to offer arrogant, conventional Jack Crews a job and convince him not to take it. She doesn’t need anyone’s help, thank you very much. But tonight is all about the tall, sexy stranger who just walked in the bar—and all the delicious trouble they could get into together. Too bad just as things are heating up between them, he whispers the three little words that destroy everything: “I’m Jack Crews.”
Jack is determined to connect with fiery Ronnie—in bed and out of it—but her terms are clear. If he takes the job, helping her acquire prized artifacts for her mysterious bosses, anything between them is strictly off-limits. Somehow he has to convince a woman who’s never felt like she belonged that she’s found her place—with him. And with the danger sparking hotter than the fire between them, it’s going to be one unforgettable trip…

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Slow Ride is everything its predecessor, Driven to Distraction, isn’t. Ronnie Ashford and Jack Crew have a hilarious meet-cute and I’m all over this pairing like a wine connoisseur over a 1999 Château LaTour Pauillac (I totally googled that, a bottle recently auctioned for £330/$427 so ‘sgood). Ronnie doesn’t do commitments, no dating, no relationships, no friendships, no attachments whatsoever, just her job, even her apartment is ready to leave at a moment’s notice. She has some trauma in her past that makes her abrasive and standoffish. Then we have Jack who’s already renovating a house and does favours for his old school teacher and has so many community ties, he’s a walking Gordian Knot. But boy-meets-girl and slowly but surely, things fall into place. With suspense and a teensy mystery tossed in for flavour. And it does have flavour. The bad guy du jour, North Runde, skeeves me out. My first thought was literally, and I’m quoting from my notes here, “fudging serial killer obsessed with Ronnie”. The vibes coming off this guy made me glad Ronnie and I are of the same mind, never go anywhere without a knife. I’m a fan of Ronnie’s bosses, gothic twins Drake and Drew, and Ronnie is definitely my favourite character in this one. She’s stereotype edgy but I adore her because Lori doesn’t usually write characters like Ronnie and it shows that she’s expanding her character types. Yay!
I had a couple things I wasn't fond of in Slow Ride. I'm just going to get this out of the way. I keep calling the book Slow to Ride and that is a totally different connotation, don't you think? Jack's internal dialogue could be a bit, well, objectifying towards Ronnie. The cringey part that got me was post-"trust has been established" sex, he's lying there with her and thinking "He felt like he'd just solved a difficult puzzle, conquered a nation, scored first prize." Cringe! It was irksome to read. And yes, I did spend a good ten minutes venting about this scene while I was reading.

I want to put some content warnings in here for y’all. So, if you feel the need to have warnings, click the button to reveal all!

We have unsolicited sexual harassment towards our hero (because sexual harassment isn’t okay no matter the gender), and “mild” animal abuse (all animal abuse is severe in my book but this is quickly abated by our hero and heroine and the animal is 100% unharmed and safe). There is also kidnapping and slightly descriptive talk of murder in here. Oh, and a stabbing scene. And gun violence.

Overall, I'm giving Slow Ride 4 stars and 4 flames because this is the Lori Foster I know and love. I highly encourage y'all to go find yourselves a copy if you're into respectful alpha men, mustang cars, weird collectors, and goofy dogs.

Lori Foster first published with Harlequin in January 1996. Her second book launched Temptation Blaze and her 25th book launched Temptation Heat. Since those early days, Lori has routinely had 6 to 10 releases a year. She’s a Waldenbooks, USA Today, Publisher’s Weekly and New York Times bestselling author with over 100 titles published through a variety of houses, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martins, Harlequin and Silhouette.
Lori also writes as L.L. Foster.

You can connect with Lori on social media here::

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Other Lori Foster Books I've reviewed::
Driven to Distraction

We're going house hunting next week during Thanksgiving Break, so y'all cross your fingers that we find a nice place on our wanderings around the Orlando area. . This post's charity of choice is The ASPCA because my heartstrings got tugged again. Oops. Until next time, have a happily ever after!